1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a blindstitch machine wherein a mechanism for feeding an end of a fabric to the sewing position of a main body of the machine is provided in front of the main body so as to form a seam from the end of the fabric where to start the sewing.
2. Description of the Related Art
A blindstitch machine is a sewing machine to blindstitch a folded edge of a fabric such as a hem of clothes. In this kind of blindstitch machine, a sickle-like sewing needle in front of a feed dog, while traveling with a circular motion in a direction perpendicular to the feeding direction of the fabric, stitches by scooping a half of the thickness of the main fabric and the folded hem of the fabric. Since sewing can start only after an end Fe of the fabric 1 is fed under the feed dog provided at the back of the sewing position, no seam is formed for a distance A from the end Fe of the fabric 1 fed under the feed dog to a position where the sewing needle passes first as shown for FIG. 1(a). Therefore, a part of the fabric left without a seams is necessary to be hand-stitched after the sewing.
In order to eliminate the above inconvenience inherent in the conventional blindstitching, the applicants of this invention have proposed an improved blindstitch machine (Japanese Utility Model Application No. 2-37494, 1990, U.S. Pat. No. 5,136,956 granted Aug. 11, 1992, based on application Ser. No. 675,974 filed Mar. 28, 1991), wherein a feeding mechanism by the rotation of a belt in touch with the lower surface of the fabric is provided in front of the feed dog, to feed the fabric towards the passing position of the needle.
With this machine it is possible to start sewing while the end Fe of the fabric 1 is set ahead of the passing position of the needle, so that, as indicated in FIG. 1(b), the seam S is formed from the start end Fe of the fabric 1. The feeding amount of the fabric by the main body is adjusted by a driving mechanism of the feed dog of the main body, thereby securing a suitable feeding amount corresponding to the kind of the fabric and the seam length. However, the feeding timing may not synchronize between the main body and the feeding mechanism because of the fixed rotating amount of the belt of the feeding mechanism. In such case, the fabric 1 may be undesirably wrinkled or stretched in front of and in the rear of the sewing position.